CUSTOM AND MYTH


To E. B. Tylor, author of 'Primitive Culture,' these studies of the
oldest stories are dedicated.




INTRODUCTION.


Though some of the essays in this volume have appeared in various
serials, the majority of them were written expressly for their present
purpose, and they are now arranged in a designed order. During some
years of study of Greek, Indian, and savage mythologies, I have become
more and more impressed with a sense of the inadequacy of the prevalent
method of comparative mythology. That method is based on the belief that
myths are the result of a disease of language, as the pearl is the result
of a disease of the oyster. It is argued that men at some period, or
periods, spoke in a singular style of coloured and concrete language, and
that their children retained the phrases of this language after losing
hold of the original meaning. The consequence was the growth of myths
about supposed persons, whose names had originally been mere
'appellations.' In conformity with this hypothesis the method of
comparative mythology examines the proper names which occur in myths. The
notion is that these names contain a key to the meaning of the story, and
that, in fact, of the story the names are the germs and the oldest
surviving part.